We're excited to say that Shenzhen has not 1 but 2 new sports centers to show off this week as the 2011 Universiade Summer Games kick off. The Bao'an Stadium was inspired by the forests of Southern China and is surrounded by green, bamboo-like columns, which provide structural support. Like the Universiade Sports Center nearby, the Bao'an Stadium was designed by GMP Architekten with strong consideration for the efficient use of materials. During the international university competition, the 40,000 seat stadium will host football matches, and afterwards, it will be used for other athletics.

Located in the Bao’an District, the new stadium was designed as a perfect circle to fit within the urban space without any specific orientation. Access into the stadium can be gained from almost every direction and the structure fits snuggly in between another sports arena and a swimming pool. The design of the stadium was inspired by the bamboo forests of southern China, an aspect that is reflected in the facade. Large, green colored steel poles installed in varying angles create the exterior of the stadium and provide structural support for the roof membrane. The poles serve as a visual reminder of nature and filter daylight into the space but do not block a visual sight line from outside in or from inside out.

GMP Architekten paid particular attention to the efficient use of materials when designing and constructing the stadium’s roof. They selected a membrane roof because it was one of the most efficient ways to cover the seating areas across such a large span. The membrane roof is held up by 36 pairs of cables that are pretensioned by a circular double tension ring held above the pitch. The result of the membrane roof and the facade of the bamboo-like poles is that the stadium has a very open atmosphere. A flat podium around the stadium allows free circulation and easy access to the tiered seating inside looking down on the submerged field in the center.

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lazyreaderAugust 19, 2011 at 3:43 pm

How many stadiums has China built recently. It’s like their is an Inhabitat article regarding stadiums from China every week. Is their really a benefit to it. Especially since the newly emerging Chinese middle class will probably drive cars to get there. This whole tendency to put what are scarce public funds into conventions centers is absurd. Some politicians claim that stadiums increase the number of jobs. There’s a huge consensus among economists that there is no economic development benefit to having these stadiums. The stadiums do create jobs for construction workers and some vendors. But “it’s a case of the seen and the unseen, just like 19th-century French economist Frederic Bastiat. “It’s very easy to see a new stadium going up. … But what you don’t see is that something else didn’t get built across town. It’s just transferring from one place to the other. Just like their Olympic stuff in 2008. Much of it may be demolished. Olympic buildings sit empty and abandoned. An investigation by the Toronto Star found that the 1988 Calgary Games were a huge money loser, contrary to the IOC’s claims that the event made a $90 million profit. An independent audit by the state of New South Wales estimated that the 2000 Sydney Games cost taxpayers $2.2 billion. The federal government spent nearly $400 million to boost the Salt Lake City (make that World-Class Salt Lake City) winter games, including $220 million for Olympics-related security and more than $100 million in federal transportation subsidies. The federal tab for the 1996 Atlanta games was $192 million. Georgia taxpayers forked over $240 million on top of that. And that’s not including the countless business owners and residents who are inevitably displaced and evicted to make way for those gleaming sports palaces and villages. In short, the Olympic bidding war is a losing plunge for the public. I’m glad Chicago lost the 2016 Olympic bid so they don’t bankrupt themselves building and preparing for the games like Greece, or China or Rio.